With the improvement of people's living standards, washing machines have become one of major household appliances in people's daily life. The washing process of a washing machine mainly comprises several stages of washing, rinsing and dewatering. In the washing stage, water and a detergent are fed into the washing machine, and clothes are washed; and after the rinsing stage begins, in order to rinse out dirt and the residual detergent, much water is needed or many times of rinsing needs to be performed to rinse the clothes, so that a large amount of water is consumed. Even if a water-saving drum washing machine is used, the clothes also need to be rinsed at least twice to get cleaned, and at least 30 L or above of running water needs to be consumed in the process. Sometimes, dirt on the clothes is less or the use amount of the detergent is less, the clothes can be cleaned after being rinsed twice. But because a user selects three times of rinsing, waste of water can also be caused. For example, a 6 Kg full-automatic washing machine generally consumes about 100 litres of water for rinsing twice. How to thoroughly wash clothes and save water and electricity at the same time is one of the focuses of consumers.
Therefore, the applicant has filed a Chinese patent application with the application number of 201310356428.5, which relates to a washing machine with a circulating water treatment function and a control method for the washing machine. The washing machine comprises an outer barrel, a clothes washing structure arranged in the outer barrel and a flocculation water treatment device arranged under the outer barrel, wherein the flocculation water treatment device comprises a flocculation treatment unit and a filtering unit. The flocculation treatment unit comprises a flocculation container communicating with the outer barrel, and a flocculant deliverer for delivering a flocculant into the flocculation container, and water is discharged from the outer barrel to the flocculation container for flocculation treatment. The filtering unit comprises a filtering container and a filtering screen arranged in the filtering container, the filtering container communicates with the flocculation container and the outer barrel, and water after flocculation treatment in the flocculation container is filtered and re-discharged into the outer barrel for reuse. In this patent application, the flocculation filtration-treated water is circulated until washing is finished, and the water is discharged into the circulating water treatment device for cleaning of the flocculation treatment unit and the filtering unit, and then is drained. The flocculation washing machine provided by this patent application has the characteristics that water is saved, water pollution is reduced, and the environment is protected.
When flocculation treatment is performed on the washing water or rinsing water by a conventional flocculation container, dirt in the water will react with the flocculant, and flocculates are generated. The generated flocculates can precipitate or float, so that water and dirt are separated, and the purpose of purifying the washing water and/or the rinsing water is achieved.
Besides, in the washing process, the washing machine enables the washing water to perform circulation flowing up and down, so that contact between the detergent and clothes can be more sufficient due to the circulating water flows, and the washing efficiency is improved. Therefore, how to integrate two washing manners of flocculate self cleaning and self-circulating flowing of the washing water into the same washing machine becomes a research and development hotspot.
In view of this, the present disclosure is disclosed.